Greenpeace, the environmental activist group, has asked the presidents of six universities to investigate their faculty members who have received payments from The Heartland Institute, a nonprofit group in Chicago that is being financed by folks with lots of money who claim they don't believe that humans are causing global climate change.
The Heartland Institute promotes "free-market environmentalism," whatever that is. Frankly, in recent years freewheeling "free markets" have done a lot of damage in the financial and environmental spheres. "Free-market" advocacy is no guarantee that the right thing will always be done.
One prof is receiving $1,667 per month from Heartland, in payment for "regularly and publicly" opposing scientific warnings about the accumulating dangerous effects of climate change and global warming. Folks, that's not a "payment," that's a "payoff." Among the financial backers of the Heartland Institute are the Koch brothers. You draw your own conclusions.
We are cooking the planet. Polar ice caps are melting. Weather patterns are changing. It's OK to say that neither scientists nor the rest of us know every last detail of what's going on with unquestionable precision. It's not OK to say "there's no proof" of global climate change and therefore we don't have to start doing anything about it yet. Our children and grandchildren will suffer for our inaction.
We're cooking the planet. It's going to be expensive to change our energy use and our lifestyles. Let's face up to it. Turn off the water while you're brushing your teeth. What else will you do?
Other comments on global climate change:
Hot times...
We're cooking the planet...(part 1)
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